Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray 2 May 1921 23 April 1992 was an Indian filmmaker widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century Ray was born in the city of Calcutta into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature Starting his career as a commercial artist Ray was drawn into independent filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing Vittorio De Sicas Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves 1948 during a visit to London Ray directed 36 films including feature films documentaries and shorts He was also a fiction writer publisher illustrator calligrapher music composer graphic designer and film critic He authored several short stories and novels primarily aimed at children and adolescents Feluda the sleuth and Professor Shonku the scientist in his science fiction stories are popular fictional characters created by him He was awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University Rays first film Pather Panchali 1955 won eleven international prizes including the inaugural Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival This film along with Aparajito 1956 and Apur Sansar The World of Apu 1959 form The Apu Trilogy Ray did the scripting casting scoring and editing and designed his own credit titles and publicity material Ray received many major awards in his career including 32 Indian National Film Awards a number of awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies and an Academy Honorary Award in 1992 The Government of India honored him with the Bharat Ratna in 1992